On August 20 and September 5, 1977, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 space probes launched from earth to explore the outer Solar System and eventually interstellar space.

In the event the Voyager Spacecraft is ever found by intelligent life forms from other planetary systems, both spacecraft carry a 12-inch golden phonograph record that contains pictures and sounds of Earth, symbolic directions on the cover for playing the record and data detailing the location of Earth.

In addition, then United States of America President Jimmy Carter penned a three-paragraph letter and placed it on the Voyager Spacecraft. The following note remains the only letter in history to reach extra-solar space.

This is a present from a small distant world.

Nearly 45 years and some 23 billion kilometers traveled later, the two Voyagers are still in operation and both continue to collect and transmit useful data to earth.

01 A Present From A Small Distant World

Originally conceived as part of the Mariner program, the two Voyager probes mission, initially named Mariner 11 and Mariner 12, was to flyby and explore Jupiter and Saturn. The two probes made number of important discoveries about these planets, its satellites, its radiations bells and its never-before-seen planetary rings. It gave us our first close-up look at the strange and wondrous planets Uranus and Neptune.

The Voyager Interstellar Mission is a mission extension, to explore the Solar System beyond the outer planets to the limit and if possible, even beyond. The Voyagers continues to search for the heliopause boundary which is the outer limit of the Sun’s magnetic field. Passing through the heliopause boundary will allow the spacecraft to make measurements of the interstellar fields, particles and waves unaffected by the solar wind.

02 Voyager

Exploring new horizons, discovering new life, this was also the mission of Vityaz, a research vessel.

Built as a freighter in 1939 in Bremen, Germany and named Mars, the ship was used during the World War II as a hospital ship for military use. Passed away to the British Government in 1946, allocated to the Soviet Union under the terms of the Potsdam Agreement in 1947 and renamed Admiral Makarov, the ship is finally converted to a research vessel and renamed Vityaz in 1949.

Vityaz made 65 voyages covering 800 000 nautical miles (1 500 000 kilometers). In August 1957, she measured the depth of the Mariana Trench at 11 022 meters. Scientists on board discovered 1176 new species of marine plants and animals, visited 49 countries, and acted as a goodwill ambassador for the Soviet Union.

Vityaz made her final voyage around Europe and was retired on April 22, 1979. In 1988, she as repaired and rebuilt for the use as a museum ship.

In July 2020, Russia revealed the Vityaz-D, the first full-ocean depth, fully autonomous deep submergence vehicle. It was named in honor of the research vessel Vityaz, which for nearly 20 years was the flagship of the Soviet scientific research fleet. 

As the Voyager spacecraft continues his journey towards the interstellar space. The exploration never stops.

03 Vityaz

On February 14, 1990, the Voyager 1 space probe took a photograph of planet Earth from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers. The Earth appears as a tiny dot, the size of less than a pixel.

In his book, Pale Blue Dot, Carl Saga comments: 

"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturing, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark”

Human looks nothing in the vastness of space but it doesn’t stop him to be always eager to war. The exploration of space has also a military motivation.

In July 2020, Kosmos 2543, a Russian military satellite of unknown purpose, spat out another object at over 140 meters per second. Russia says that it was “a small space vehicle” to inspect other satellites. Nonsense, says America; it was a projectile. “What they’re doing is signaling to the world that they are able to destroy satellites in orbit with other satellites”.

04 Kosmos 2543

The Golden record is constructed of gold-plated copper and is 12 inches in diameter. The record’s cover is aluminum and electroplated upon it is an ultra-pure sample of isotope uranium-238. It is possible via mass spectrometry that a civilization that encounters the record will be able to use the ratio of remaining uranium to the other elements to determine the age of the record.

The selection of content for the Golden Record took almost a year. It includes 115 images and a variety of natural sounds, such as those made surf, wind, thunder, and animals. It also includes audio content to represent humanity: spoken greetings in 55 ancient and modern languages, musical selections from different cultures and eras.

The records also had the inscription “To the makers of music – all worlds, all times”

05 ... From Earth

I.) Heliosphere

As the solar wind continuously blows away from the Sun at supersonic speeds, it creates a cavity in interstellar space filled with solar material; the heliosphere. 

In December 2004, Voyager 1 crossed the termination shock, where the solar wind is slowed to subsonic speed, and entered the heliosheath, where the solar wind is compressed and made turbulent due to interactions with the interstellar medium. 

Three years later, in December 2007, Voyager 2 also reached the termination shock, about 1.6 billion kilometres closer to the Sun than from where Voyager 1 first crossed it, indicating that the Solar System is asymmetrical.  

     II.) Heliopause

Because the solar and interstellar plasmas have different compositions, densities, temperatures, and are braided by magnetic fields of different origin, they cannot interact freely and must be separated by a discontinuous boundary. This outer edge of the heliosphere is called the heliopause and marks the start of interstellar space, or rather, the start of the interstellar medium. 

The Voyager probes first brought us data from this last frontier of the solar system. The dates were confused and mysterious. 

To solve this puzzle, scientists need a better overall picture of the heliosphere. Their shape is still unknown due to lack of data. It may be roughly spherical due to the pressure of the interstellar medium. But it is just as possible that it has a tail like a comet or is shaped more like a croissant.

A better understanding of this border area also means that we can better understand the path of the sun through the galaxy - and thus the situation of other stars in the cosmos.

    III.) Interstellar Mission

 The Voyager 1 spacecraft crossed the heliopause in August 2012 at a radial 19 billion kilometers from the Sun and Voyager 2 in November 2018 at a distance of 18 billion kilometers

Unfortunately, the Voyager mission cannot continue indefinitely and power requirements will force the mission to an end; perhaps within the coming decade. New strategies to extend the mission, including a new power management plan, were recently implemented and the real-time status of the spacecraft can be found at https://voyager.jpl.nasa.gov/. 

It is unclear when a follow-up mission will again reach interstellar space. Work is on-going in formulating such an interstellar probe in COSPAR’s (Committee in Space Research’s) Panel on Interstellar Research. 

Voyager will be remembered as one of the greatest achievements in exploration.

Voyager

22.09.2022

06 Al Paka

Join me as I sit down with Lorimer Burst! Dennis Struhl, Matthieu Fabiene and Arne Grosser were kind enough to take some time to chat with me over Zoom about the band that shares my name! You can find out more about them here:

https://lorimerburst.com

During the show, we listen to two of their tracks - Transition and Vityaz.

Musical Lives #31 - Lorimer Burst

Lorimer Burst a three-piece instrumental post-rock band from Hannover, Germany.

06 Al Paka

Lorimer Burst

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